April 22, 2010

Attention South Florida Brides!

I know I don’t usually make posts like these, but having been extremely active on The Knot during my wedding planning and knowing how stressful the whole process can be on a girl, a couple and a family, I could not let this go by without sharing. At first I thought this was one of those fake forwards, until one of my oldest and dearest friends (who sent me the email) told me she knew the girl and that it was not a scam (unfortunately).

So to all brides-to-be in the South Florida area, please read the following and consider yourselves warned!

Edit:

My previous post was asked to be removed by the bride’s family due to privacy reasons.

Jackie

This has sufficiently scared the CRAP out of me. I just bought my dress from Ever After. Granted, my visit was great and went very smoothly…I’ve had no problems up to this point and I PRAY that it continues to go smoothly and that they honor the terms of the contract. What a horribly, sad thing to have happen so close to your wedding day…my heart goes out to Yari.
- http://www.melificent.com Meli
  
  Omigosh, Jax. It was not my intention to scare the crap out of you. I had forgotten your dress was from Ever After! But, like Marilise mentioned above, I didn’t post this just to single out Ever After. A lot of bridal salons out there capitalize on the whole industry and treat women that come into their shops so horribly because they know they are obsessed with getting “the perfect dress.” I bought my dress from Chic Parisian, the supposed “savior” in this story, but I also experienced some pretty terrible customer service while I was shopping there. It’s just a heads up for brides to not let themselves be taken advantage of – no matter the situation or vendor.
Marilise

What a horrible and sad story!

I was blessed to find a small, honest bridal shop in South Florida (Livette Bridals) when shopping for my own wedding. The shop was run by a mother and daughter, and I received wonderful, kind personalized attention. But honestly the wedding gown industry is generally full of bad behavior–there’s a LOT of shadiness that goes on with many of these boutiques, even the well known ones.

There are too many bad practices that go unchecked at these shops, and these places stay open for business because brides keep rewarding them with their cash anyway! Buying an expensive gown isn’t like buying a pair of socks–nobody should feel like they’re being pressured into a we-need-to-close-this-deal-in-10-minutes-max situation. Stores with employees that insult brides because of their dress size, stores with employees that assume you can’t afford to buy their gowns because you’re dressed in a pair of jeans and sneakers, stores that won’t tell a bride the model number of the dress because they don’t want brides to comparison shop, etc. These are just a couple of MANY bad practices that continue unchecked because people keep patronizing these stores.

Brides-to-be, don’t let yourselves be pushed around, and more importantly, don’t lose your heads! I know the dress is important, but no matter how gorgeous it is and how perfect the fit, it’s not more important than your dignity and self-worth!
adrienne

The thing that’s most disturbing about this story is the way the store knowingly mistreated her non-English-speaking mother. They should be ashamed of themselves.
http://itsmeroxy.tumblr.com/ Rox

Stories like these break my little heart, that amount of money and stress that goes into weddings should be eased and comforted by the vendors that brides work with, instead more often than not brides are mistreated! To have to deal with that days before your wedding and the DAY OF is completely horrifying, they should’ve been more than accommodating to their $$$$ paying bride! Why aren’t they being sued again? They should definitely make a complaint to Vera, I’m sure if they knew their name was being compromised by a store they would be a lot less “loyal”
ughh poor bride, me no likey mean people!
http://needles-pens.blogspot.com Becca

Wow… that’s scary! I’ve heard such horror stories about bad customer service, but this is crazy. I started doing dress research the other day on WeddingWire and Ever After was no where to be seen in the top 20 stores. Not that it matters as I’m probably getting a bridesmaids dress from David’s or Alfred Angelo to wear as my wedding gown. But yikes!
Vicky

This is such a terrible story. I know for a fact there are many others out there. As somebody who used to work in a very popular bridal salon I can personally tell you that HORRIBLE things happen behind the customer’s back. All that matters is the all mighty dollar and how much profit they make. It’s one of the main reasons I don’t work there anymore. I just don’t have it in me to be evil and coniving.